Why was Herbert Hoover a bad president?

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Herbert Hoover is seen by many critics as a bad president due to his lack of effort to end the Great Depression. Many detractors claim that Hoover actually made the Great Depression even worse than it was. At the time, many people saw him as an uncaring and mean-spirited president and a poor communicator.

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Critics of Hoover say that he adhered to his conservative principles at the cost of failing to offer any real relief for the economy and the people suffering as a result of the Great Depression. In fact, the homeless who cropped up in makeshift shanty towns dubbed them Hoovervilles in reference to their plight and his failure to help.

Hoover is also seen as having exacerbated the Great Depression due to some policy mistakes during his presidency that worsened the problem. For example, he signed a tariff act into law that caused international trade wars, worsening the economy and making it harder for those already affected by the Great Depression. Some critics also argue that Hoover was a "do nothing" who felt that the Depression should be accepted as a fact of life and that people had to endure it. Hoover's initial responses to the crisis did little to alleviate suffering, and he goes down in history as one of the worst presidents.